The Dream Collector : Character Analysis

Have you ever read a story that has a significant change in the plot suddenly? A lot of thrillers/horror stories, will use the method of transformation to create fear. Transformation plays a huge role in stories meant to scare us. It causes sudden change of mood or how you feel about a certain character quickly which can create a fearful aspect in the story. Examples of writers that use this method include; Ishmeal Reed and Edgar Allen Poe.

When writing “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe used the setting outside of the mansion to illustrate the theme of the fear of death. From the outset, the Rodrick Usher’s home is portrayed in a way that gives the reader a feeling of alarm. For example, the narrator mentions the house gives him a feeling of “insufferable gloom” (Usher 1). By pointing this out, the reader begins to feel on edge as the connotation of “gloom” is unwelcoming and distressing. The home is also said to have “vacant eye like windows” (Usher 1) which make the narrator

Transformation plays a role in stories meant to scare us by playing with our imagination safety and mood of a story. Imagination appears in both Edgar Allan Poe’s, gothic fiction story “The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Usher’s isolated environment and in Joyce Carol Oates gothic literature story “Where is Here?,” by foreseeing who people are. Transformation also plays a role by it assists knowing our own selves are safe in a scary situation. This is shown in, “ Why do Some Brains Enjoy Fear?,” by Allegra Ringo and in “ House Taken Over,” by Julio Cortazar. Transformation plays with our imagination and our safety it also plays a role in the mood and setting. This appears in , “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “The Dream Collector,”

How does setting create atmosphere? It can show the attitude of the author or narrator and cause readers to feel certain emotions to therefore, experience the story better. In Edgar Allan Poe’s novel, The Fall of the House of Usher, the setting is an old, beaten down, ancestral house. As seen in the following quote, Poe creates a dark and gloomy atmosphere when he describes the first day the narrator arrives at the house, “...a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens…” (Poe 13). However, the atmosphere is quite different in Julio Cortazar’s story, House Taken Over. This work of fiction also had an old ancestral home as the setting, but Cortazar uses a different tone when describing it to make the readers imagine a better atmosphere. One example of this is when he mentioned the memories the narrator

Transformation in the world happens when people are healed and start investing in other people- Michael W. Smith. Change plays a key role in one’s life. Change is what makes one’s life different from usual; change is needed in everyone’s life in order to maintain the fluency of life. The character Gregor Samsa’s in the book “Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka symbolizes change, in which he gets transformed into a large insect. Change literally means to make or do something in a different manner to get a new result.

Change can be seen as a form of transformation or conversion. A form of change can be seen in “Victory Lap” by George Saunders, a short story written in such a way that the events that are enrolling throughout the story are being processed and told through the minds of three main characters. Having the perspective of each character allows us, the readers to get a much greater understanding about them and to make a better character analysis. Having said that, this story is simply about a girl, Alison getting kidnapped by an unnamed kidnapper. What were really captivating were the changes spotted on characters as the conflict progresses. One character in particular is very intriguing and his name is Kyle. One of our main character, Alison

The house is different from other houses in the sense that, it didn’t allude to a real house. The house is an image of many ideas

Transformations are constantly occurring, but most of the time it’s difficult to identify them. As society evolves transformations must occur. To Transform means to “make a thorough change in the form of appearance, or to undergo a change” (Oxford Canadian Dictionary, 902). A transformation is to undergo change; from something you were into something new. In the works: Lord of The Flies, Fifth Business, and Divergent transformations transpire in each character through the way they think of themselves, what others think of them, and what they think of others.

The house is a connection to who the characters are, their being and culture. This is evident when the “black fella” is constantly telling Quick to “go home” throughout the story, referring to Cloudstreet. Rose’s decision to give up her house in the new suburbs and move back to Cloudstreet is also an example of this connection to the house, as Rose and Quick, as part of their character development, realise they cannot abandon who they are; they cannot abandon Cloudstreet.

In “The Fall of the House of Usher” the story starts with the narrator saying that he is overcome with a feeling of gloom upon first seeing the house. He compares the windows to vacant eyes. The narrator goes on to tell how the house appears to him but then tries to explain it away as his overactive imagination.

reader feel a sense of dread and despair because unlike the house the reader knows the owners

The house is always being referred to as alive, and throughout the story different parts of the house are being talked about as though they are body parts of a human. "Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior," just as a disease or an illness would overcome a human body (Poe 716). They say the house has eye-like windows and are of a crimson red. The house is connected to the family and the family name, because this family is the only family to have ever lived in this house, and the house has `seen' everything that has gone on with the family from the very beginning. As long as the house stays up and strong the family name will remain and continue, but if the house were to crumble the family members in it would die with the house. Because the house is almost like their hearts, and as long as it's alive and well they will stay alive and well, and the family name will be carried on.

The house symbolically acts as a place of isolation, illustrating the way that if humans no longer have communication with other people it results into madness. The symbol of the house is significant, the house is an isolated place especially near the windows. As the unnamed narrator arrives at the house a servant takes his horse, and he enters the Gothic archway of the hall. As the narrator is lead to Roderick's studio by the servant, he notices the familiar yet gloomy atmosphere. He is put in a room where he describes as large and lofty and "the windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance from

When they first arrive at the colonial house the narrator is happy about the house. It it the most beautiful house as it “stand[s] well back from the road, quite three miles from the village” and it makes her “think of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little housed for the hardeners and people” (88). She arrives at the house and deems it to be just like the haunted houses society reads about at the time. The house is in some legal troubles over who rightly owns the house, which is why they were able to get the house so cheap. While the narrator wanted to take a room downstairs with a view of the gardens, her husband places her in a room upstairs. She describes the room upstairs as “a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and

The long family line has imprinted its aura onto the house, and in turn, the house conduces the inhabitants towards a predetermined lifestyle. The Usher family, as the narrator says, despite its age, has always been feeble, because it has never been able to generate an enduring branch. Just as the family, the house has a sturdy appearance, given by its endurance through time, but it is marked by decay and so are its surroundings: the crumbled stones, the trees and the spooky tarn all add to the oppressive, uncanny atmosphere. Just as the individual parts which shape the domain are marked by decomposition, so is each member of the family plagued by some form of disintegration.